Gaming machines which enable players to play primary or base games in exchange for monetary credits or dollars wagered are well known. In these gaming machines, the amount of monetary credits or dollars placed as the wager on the primary game may vary based on the denomination of the gaming machine and the maximum number of credits associated with the gaming machine. For instance, the gaming machine may enable the player to wager a minimum number of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one penny, nickel, dime, quarter or dollar) up to the maximum number of credits, such as five credits. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine may enable players to make wagers of substantially different monetary credit or dollar amounts on each play of the primary or base game. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that monetary credits or dollars are a known form of currency in gaming establishments which enable different players to wager different amounts at substantially different rates of play.
Player tracking points are another known form of currency in gaming establishments. Player tracking points are typically maintained by a player tracking system. Player tracking systems enable gaming establishments to recognize the value of customer loyalty through identifying frequent and/or high wagering players and rewarding them for their patronage. The cumulative history of a particular player's gaming activity, which is included in a player profile of a typical player tracking system, enables gaming establishments to target individual players with direct marketing promotions or customized reward plans. In typical known player tracking systems, the gaming establishment issues each participating player a player identification card which has an encoded player identification or player tracking account number that uniquely identifies that player. When the player sits down at a gaming device, the player inserts the player tracking card into a card reader which sends information or data to a player tracking system to identify the player and the player's player tracking account. The gaming machine typically monitors any player tracking points the player earns for their current gaming session and upon the player removing their player tracking card, the gaming machine communicates information or data relating to the player's gaming session to the player tracking system. Upon the conclusion of the player's current gaming session, the player tracking system updates the player's player tracking account accordingly. Thus, known player tracking systems do not provide player tracking points for a player's current gaming session which are immediately redeemable.
In one known player tracking system, upon the player removing their player tracking card, the gaming machine sends the player tracking system information or data on the credit amounts the identified player wagered. This player tracking system provides player tracking points to the player's player tracking account based on such wagered amounts or coin-in. In another known player tracking system, upon the player removing their player tracking card, the gaming machine sends the player tracking system information or data on the credit amounts the identified player won. This player tracking system provides player tracking points to the player's player tracking account based on such amounts won or coin-out. It should be appreciated that in player tracking systems wherein player tracking points are provided based on coin-out, it is advantageous for a player to play a gaming machine with a greater average expected payout percentage. For example, if a player tracking system provides 1 player tracking point for each $10 wagered, then a first player who deposits $100 into a first gaming device with an average expected payback percentage of 85% and plays until the credit meter is $0.00 will theoretically wager a total of $560. This $560 wagered includes 56 occurrences of $10 wagered and thus the player tracking system provides the first player with 56 player tracking points. In this example, a second player who deposits $100 into a second gaming device with an average expected payback percentage of 95% and plays until the credit meter is $0.00 will theoretically wager a total of $1890. This $1890 wagered includes 189 occurrences of $10 wagered and thus the player tracking system provides the second player with 189 player tracking points. Accordingly, these player tracking systems are configured such that a player playing a gaming machine with a higher average expected payback percentage (and thus a higher expected return) is also provided the additional benefit of a greater number of player tracking points.
Known gaming establishment or casino loyalty programs work in conjunction with a player tracking system to offer incentives to players in exchange for the player's loyalty to and play history at the gaming establishment. That is, based on the information or data regarding the player's gaming activity, the gaming establishment classifies each player and provides one or more of such players certain benefits based on these classifications. Certain of these benefits include providing the player a complimentary hotel room or flight back to the gaming establishment for a later date. Certain others of these benefits include enabling the player to participate in a promotion at a later date or upon a future visit to the gaming establishment. However, few players actually benefit from the running of such non-monetary promotions. It should be appreciated that such benefits which include a benefit provided at a later date are not readily redeemable by the player in exchange for their player tracking points.
Promotional credits are another known form of currency at a gaming establishment. Promotional credits (delivered as either direct mail offers or as a result of a loyalty bonus) utilized in one or more wagering games provide loyalty incentives to players. Such promotional credits are often offered as a one time event such as for a player signing up for a player tracking card. It should be appreciated that providing promotional credits to a player is often preferable over providing non-promotional or monetary credits to a player because known promotional credits are not immediately redeemable by a player for cash and must be played through the gaming machine.
Many gaming establishments or casinos have thousands of different gaming machines which provide players awards in thousands of different primary or base games. These different gaming machines typically accept different wager amounts and/or different denominations. In the primary or base game of these gaming machines, the awards are typically based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards. It should be appreciated that many of the different primary games of these different gaming machines include different paytables that have different average expected payback percentages which are selected by the gaming establishment operator. It should be further appreciated that it is rare that two gaming devices have identical paytables with identical average expected payback percentages.
Many known different gaming machines also each include one or more known secondary or bonus games. Such secondary or bonus games usually do not require an additional wager by the player to be activated and usually provide an additional award to the player. Most secondary or bonus games occur upon an occurrence of a triggering event and are played after the occurrence of the triggering event. Many of these different secondary or bonus games include different features and are associated with different average expected payouts. These different secondary or bonus games include different levels of volatility. Accordingly, as a gaming establishment includes thousands of different gaming machines which include thousands of different primary games and thousands of different secondary games, player's have a great number of gaming options available to them at any given time.
Server based gaming is also known. In a server based gaming environment, a central server is configured to alter the content and/or settings of a particular gaming machine in communication with the central server. In this manner, the gaming machine in communication with the central server is configured to receive certain commands and/or prompts from the central server which will cause the game to act in a specific manner. For example, in response to commands from a central server, a gaming machine may provide a gaming system award to one or more players, change games, reconfigure available denominations and/or reconfigure different paytables or average expected payback percentages. In another example, the central server is operable to download one or more games or other gaming parameters to a gaming machine to provide a gaming system award to one or more players, change games, reconfigure available denominations and/or reconfigure different paytables or average expected payback percentages.
Certain known central server use a rules engine to interact with the gaming machine. One example of the central server interacting with a gaming machine is the central server monitoring that a player has hit twenty-five four-of-a-kinds in a poker game and the rules engine causing the gaming machine to inform the player that if they hit five more four-of-a-kinds in the next three days, the player will win a bonus award of $1000. However, such known server based gaming system lack in providing a promotion that can be linked to each of the thousand of different gaming machines at a gaming establishment. It should be appreciated that as more server based gaming systems are implemented in gaming establishments, new methods of enhancing different players' gaming experiences and new methods of enhancing the gaming establishment's utilization of such server based gaming systems need to be developed.
There is a continuing need to provide new and different gaming machines and gaming systems as well as new and different ways to provide awards to players as part of their gaming experience.